Month: July 2016

Celebrating Eid In Lister Park, Bradford

This afternoon I decided to visit a park here in Bradford which had been a favourite playground in the fifties. Lister Park, also know as Manningham Park, is not far from the city centre and is in an area of Bradford which has been home to Asian families for generations. I realised, as I sauntered through the park, that families were enjoying an afternoon of fun and games. The brightly clothed children and adults led me to wonder if it was Eid and that local families were celebrating the end of the fast.

I sat down on a bench near Cartwright Hall Art Gallery and was immediately approached by a beautifully dressed and smiling woman who asked me haltingly if her husband could take a picture of us. I was so taken aback I said yes, of course. When I asked her why she wanted the photo she said that she respected and loved old people! I found this really touching and wished her blessings for Eid.

Many things about Lister Park remain the same but near Cartwright Hall there is now the beautiful Mughal Water Gardens. These gardens reflect the cultural mix which is so much a part of Bradford’s heritage. It really is wonderful to see this serene and exotic creation in the midst of a typically English park.   As I was strolling round, admiring the streams, fountains, plants and geometric designs, two young Asian women, also dressed for the festival, greeted me and we had a chat about the gardens, the park and what the park used to be like when I was a child. Unlike my friend earlier, they had broad Yorkshire accents, though their dress was as modest and traditional as hers.

As I left the park more families arrived and the young man in the cafe told me that, as it was Eid, they expected to be very busy later in the afternoon. I always loved Lister Park as a child and many aspects of it fuelled my vivid imagination at a time when it seemed a magical place. It made me happy seeing other children being caught up in that magic.

Reflections on Returning Home

In April I returned to live in Bradford after living in various places over the past fifty years. Since the move I’ve had a chance to reflect on how it feels to be back ‘up North’. It may be fanciful but I really feel that Bradford is happy to have me back. For my part I am discovering that this much maligned, but to me beloved, city has a lot more going for it than many people think.

First, I’m really happy to be living near my family again and getting to know them better. My sister, brother in law and myself have flats in the same sheltered housing scheme and one of my nephews and his family live nearby. My niece and her family live quite near also. The family helped prepare my flat before I arrived.

We live in an area on the western fringes of Bradford called Thornton. Probably its major claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of the Brontes. Their house is now a cafe called Emily’s! Thornton used to be a village outside Bradford and still feels like a village with old houses and steep, uneven streets. A bright sunny day shows off Thornton in all its old fashioned charm but we did have snow one morning in May! We are about six miles from the city centre and, apparently, if you travel out from the city centre in most directions fields and small villages and hamlets appear. On the eastern side this is not the case as it is there where Bradford merges into Leeds.

The bus service during the day and during the week is great but buses are less frequent in the evenings and on Sunday. I love the bus ride into Bradford and I’ve also travelled further afield, Keighley, Shipley, Halifax and even taken the train to York and Leeds. It takes about twenty minutes to get into town and I am still struck by how much the city centre has changed and how much of it is still the same.

Sometimes in the city centre I come across a building or a street which hasn’t changed at all. When this happens memories come flooding back. Not dramatic memories but many small, sometimes poignant, ones. Actually, there is one dramatic memory. Several times a week I pass a run down former cinema and concert venue where I saw the Beatles in the early sixties.